Wedding planning is such a big and exciting task, and as a bride, deciding what you want to wear on your wedding day is always top of the list.
Whether you choose to wear a short tea length wedding dress or a full-length bridal gown, your wedding shoes will undoubtedly be on show at some point throughout your wedding day, so make sure to invest a little time to find a beautiful pair that you will treasure long after your nuptials.
As a wedding shoe designer for the past 25 years, I’ve gained so much knowledge on how to (and how not to) find and purchase your dream bridal heels. Here are my top tips for wedding shoe shopping, to help make the process simple and – more importantly – loads of fun.
1. Create Pinterest boards for wedding inspiration
Pinterest boards are such a helpful tool for wedding planning – you can have a dedicated board for your wedding decor, wedding dresses, wedding shoes, bridesmaids dresses, invitation designs… the list is almost endless.
Pinterest is essentially a search engine, enabling you to search for images of and inspiration for anything you can dream of, and save it to your own personalised boards. Whether you’re planning a floral wedding, a boho wedding, a traditional white wedding or anything else for that matter, it’s a great place to start generating and collating inspiration for the big day,
2. High heels or low heels?
If you’re not used to wearing high-heeled shoes, then your wedding day is not the day to start – trust me, you’ll regret it! On your wedding day, comfort is all-important, and the last thing you want to worry about is tripping down the aisle, especially if you are already feeling nervous.
Pick a heel height that you’re comfortable with – even if your fiancé is much taller than you, adding a few centimetres to your bridal heels will make very little difference. Don’t feel pressured to wear high wedding heels if they’re not for you – there are lots of gorgeous low-heeled and flat wedding shoes available too.
3. Invest in quality
As I mentioned, comfort is super important when it comes to wedding shoes. Whether you have waited for a grand wedding at a stately home or castle or a small and intimate affair, weddings are long days, often with a lot amount of walking around to chat with family and friends, followed by dancing, so it’s really important to have comfy shoes.
Personally, I always opt for quality shoes with leather linings and soles if possible – they’re generally softer and more flexible, and will ‘give’ a little. Of course, you want them to fit well, but if you’re between sizes then I would opt for a slightly looser fit and add a gel insole to start off with. This can be removed, as your feet may swell a little when you’ve been standing for a while. Tight wedding shoes are simply not an option – you really don’t want to feel uncomfortable on your wedding day!
4. Wearability and longevity
If you’re going to invest in some lovely wedding heels, then it seems a shame to only wear them once. Of course, you may be the kind of bride who wants to keep them in their beautiful box and treasure them forever, which is a lovely thing to do to preserve the memory.
If that’s not really your vibe, it’s worth considering how likely you are to wear your wedding shoes again. A coloured wedding shoe, or a nude or rose gold can make a real statement, and will look just as great with your jeans as with your wedding dress. We make a lot of gorgeous blush pink wedding shoes, as well as neutrals and rose gold trimmed shoes for brides, as they’re so versatile, even after the wedding day.
5. Keep your budget in mind
Everybody has a wedding budget, although it can be easy to go over it… When you set a budget for your dress, make sure to set one for your wedding shoes and accessories too.
A budget price doesn’t have to mean a budget look, if you have the time to shop around and be patient while looking for the wedding shoes of your dreams. Keep an eye on auction and vintage clothing sites too, and watch social media for designer and high street sales, there are still bargains out there!
If you’ve already got your heart set on something beyond your wedding budget, join the supplier’s mailing list and keep an eye out for special offers. You could also think of other things that you can do to make it happen, such as saving money on something you deem as less important – after all, a bride’s gotta have great shoes!
6. Try buying online
For many reasons, it’s not always easy or possible for every bride to go out to the shops to find their wedding shoes, not to mention everything that’s happened over the last couple of years.
Shopping online allows you to browse loads more brands and different styles of wedding shoes than you would be able to do in person. You can use your wedding outfit Pinterest board to refer back to the style you’re aiming for and to find wedding shoe designers who match your style.
7. Let your personality shine
Lastly, I always advise my brides to express their personality through their wedding shoes. If you’re all about sparkle or you love a statement flower, this is your chance to go all out! If you’re a pearly queen then why not choose a glamorous pearl embellished style, if you love them you’re far more likely to wear them again too.
And just because you’re wearing a white or ivory dress, that doesn’t mean you have to wear ivory shoes. There is no right or wrong on your wedding day – choose from red, pink, blush, or blue wedding shoes – it’s up to you, you’re the bride!
So if blue is your favourite colour, choose a fabulous pair of blue shoes that can double up as your ‘Something Blue’ lucky charm, such as our Waterlily Peep Toe or Mirella in ivory and blue
Now that you’ve read our wedding shoe shopping tips from an industry expert, hopefully you feel a little more equipped to hunt down and buy your dream bridal heels, which will keep you looking fabulous and feeling comfortable throughout your wedding day and dancing well into the night!
